In the relative calm of the international community, the time quickly came to June 1920.

During this time, the war in Russia was very anxious. The warring sides fought fiercely around Poland, Tsarist Russia and Soviet Russia, and the battle for Kiev alone broke out three battles, which were occupied by Polish troops, Soviet troops and intervening armies.

The World League also increased its assistance to Tsarist Russia again, and even the newly independent Hungary joined the intervening forces.

While it may seem that the World League is already doing everything in its power to stop the expansion of the Soviets, it is not so if one understands the extent to which the Russian Civil War brought to the World League.

Even Nicholas II and the tsarist government, which had not been seen before, were clearly aware of the ambitions of the world alliance at this time, especially Britain and France, and their assistance was not gratuitous, after all, the Russian civil war could bring greater benefits to the world alliance, so that many countries could still have enough income when the era of the Great Recession came.

June 12, 1920, St. Petersburg, Imperial Council of the Tsarist Government.

Although he avoided the risk of being overthrown in World War I, Nicholas II was not in good shape.

Because of the troubles of the civil war, Nicholas II's face was wrinkled, many of his hair turned gray, and he looked more than ten years older than he had been a few years ago.

Although he is only 52 years old, he is at the peak of his political career. But Nicholas II looked old, like an old man in his sixties and seventies.

The civil war was no longer something that either Soviet Russia or Tsarist Russia could stop if they wanted to.

Russia's civil war has made other countries smell business opportunities, and their own interests are at stake, and it is impossible for other countries to support Russia to end the civil war.

Russia's minerals, assets, and even the wealth accumulated over the centuries by its population and empire were used by Nicholas II as collateral and exchange for loans, allowing Tsarist Russia to hold out from the beginning of the civil war to the present.

According to the imperfect statistics of Tsarist Russia, from the civil war to the present, Tsarist Russia's financial expenditure has reached more than one billion pounds, and its financial liabilities have reached about 2 billion pounds, and the country's finances are not far from collapse.

If it weren't for the occasional assistance from the World League, coupled with the fact that Nicholas II mortgaged his family's savings for a hundred years, I am afraid that the tsarist government would have collapsed before the finances collapsed.

In order to win this war, Nicholas II did everything he could. Some of the capitalists and nobles who opposed Nicholas II were all seized by Nicholas II and used all their property in this war.

This also caused many nobles to flee abroad, after all, no one wanted their family's hard-earned money to disappear in an instant.

The property and property held by the Romanov family, including the government's state-owned property, were basically on the list of sale in Tsarist Russia.

To have money can buy not only factories and minerals in tsarist Russia, but even state-owned enterprises, including oil and military factories.

Although the military factories can play a good role in the war, with the current situation in Russia, it is simply not possible to organize manpower for production.

Not to mention the fact that the production of military factories still needs a supporting system, but the Russian industry has completely collapsed so far, and it is almost impossible to reopen the military factories.

What is even worse is that the loss of Russian agriculture in this civil war is a huge blow compared to the loss of industry.

In 1913, Russia's total grain output was about 92 million tons, making it a proper grain-producing country in terms of the total scale of grain production.

But last year, in 1919, Russia's total grain production plummeted to less than 60 million tons, more than half of the Russian civilian population did not have enough to eat, more than one-third of the Russian civilian population was in a food crisis, and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Russians starved to death every year.

If it weren't for the fact that Nicholas II bought a lot of grain from Australasia and Europe, I am afraid that the collapse of the Russian population would have been carried out in an extremely exaggerated figure.

To tell the truth, that is, most of the civil war was fought in the western part of Central Europe, that is, in the Polish and Ukrainian regions.

Otherwise, the blow to Russian agriculture would have been even more fatal, and Russia at that time was not even a major agricultural country, and grain imports were not enough to save Russia.

Together, Poland and Ukraine account for only one-ninth of Russia's grain production, and the rest of the vast regions can still be grown.

This is the great cause of the Russians. For example, in Hungary, although the civil war lasted for a short time, it was only a little more than three months old.

But the three months dealt a fatal blow to Hungarian agriculture, and the grain production of the year of the civil war was cut in half.

No way, who made Hungary relatively small. The civil war had already brought together a large number of peasants, and the war had an impact on agricultural production, and the reduction of grain production became a matter of course.

It is worth mentioning that long before the invention of the automobile, Russia was one of the important exporters of oil.

As the price of oil is getting higher and higher, Russia has indeed made a fortune from oil exports, increasing its foreign exchange earnings a lot.

However, after the outbreak of the civil war, Russian oil could not be shipped, and naturally it was impossible to earn income for the Russian government.

Even in order to raise loans, Nicholas II has sold the rights to several important oil fields in the country in recent years, not only to Australasia, but also to Britain, France and some European countries.

Although the mining rights have only been sold for a few years, there are no restrictions on the scale of oil field exploitation.

In fact, this also means that if there is enough oil extraction equipment, other countries can go crazy to extract oil in Russia in the past few years, and the Russian government will not have any revenue.

The Russians should rejoice that Arthur has no intention of exposing the oil fields of the Persian Gulf for the time being. Otherwise, the discovery of a large number of oil fields is destined to drop the price of oil, and even if the Russians want to auction off the exploitation rights of the oil fields, the amount of loans they will obtain will not be too high.

"Prime Minister, when will the next batch of aid from the World Alliance arrive? And how much money does the government have? Will it be able to sustain us in an entire summer offensive? Nicholas II rubbed his brow and looked at his confidant, the current prime minister of the tsarist government.

The so-called summer offensive was actually a plan for a major counteroffensive discussed by the General Headquarters of the World Alliance Intervention Forces, Poland, and Tsarist Russia.

Back at the very beginning of Polish independence, Nicholas II did not agree. But there was no way, the current situation in Russia simply could not afford to lose foreign aid, and Nicholas II had to bow his head and pinch his nose to recognize the independence of Poland.

Of course, this was not necessarily good or bad news for Tsarist Russia. In addition to the fact that the civil war could not be completed after the victory, in the current civil war, Tsarist Russia could still have one more ally.

And the location of Poland is also quite important, and St. Petersburg one in the west and one in the north, plus Kiev, which was conquered by the world alliance, is exactly the encirclement of Moscow, and an encirclement has been formed.

The summer offensive was a general encirclement of Moscow by the armies of the three sides, in an effort to capture all Soviet troops and thus quickly end the civil war.

"According to the British and French sides, a new batch of assistance with weapons and equipment should arrive in two weeks." The prime minister responded: "The country's finances are a big problem, and more than 60 percent of our annual revenue is spent on the war and 20 percent on the purchase of supplies. It takes only 20% to maintain the operation of the government and other things, and the expenses of various departments have been reduced to the lowest point, and it will be a hidden danger sooner or later. If you can get another loan, you may be able to survive this summer. ”

The financial situation of Russia as a whole is not very good, let alone Russia, which is currently divided into four (Soviet Russia, Tsarist Russia, Poland, Ukraine).

Despite the aid and large loans from other countries, Russia's finances can only be described in one sentence: gritting its teeth and persevering.

If any foreign loan is cancelled in the middle, there will be no room for turnover in Russia's finances, and bankruptcy is inevitable.

"Hmm." Nicholas II nodded silently and hummed softly to show that he understood.

After thinking about it for a long time, he sighed and said, "I will solve the problem of funds, and I will strive for a loan of at least 20 million pounds." Prime Minister, with all of this, will the government be able to survive until the end of the summer offensive? ”

"If there is £20 million, of course it will be fine, Your Majesty." The prime minister hurriedly nodded, for fear that Nicholas II would repent.

That evening, the Russian ambassador to Australasia urgently asked to see Arthur and explained his intentions.

Arthur still received the ambassador of Tsarist Russia, looked at the new Russian ambassador Levgeny with a little curiosity, and asked: "Is there anything urgent about Your Majesty Nikolai?" ”

"Your Majesty! Russia needs your support! The Russian ambassador was neither humble nor arrogant, and said in a very sincere tone.

"Support? Didn't you receive weapons and equipment from Australasia? The most recent armament should have arrived last month, right? Arthur seemed stunned for a moment, and asked incredulously.

"Weapons and equipment have been received, Your Majesty, but Russia needs more support." The Russian ambassador hurriedly explained.

"We are planning a new offensive, and the government's funds are dwarfed, and I ask Your Majesty, for the sake of the friendship between Australia and Russia, to approve a batch of loans to help the Russian government alleviate its urgent needs." The Russian ambassador continued.

Seeing that he came to ask for a loan, Arthur did not refuse, and said with a smile: "Mr. Ambassador, you should understand." If you want to seek a loan from the state, you should look for the government, not me. If you need a loan from the private sector, I will be happy to introduce you to the heads of major banks in Australasia, but you will need to discuss the specific loan matters in person. ”

The long period of aid had already made Arthur understand that Tsarist Russia was like an unsupportable Adou, and it was basically impossible to win this civil war.

This also means that Australasia's lending to Tsarist Russia is actually dangerous.

Until Nicholas II had no convincing collateral, Arthur would not have been foolish enough to offer a loan to the Russian government. Therefore, playing the ball is the best way to do it.

Anyway, there is nothing wrong with Arthur saying this, I am willing to introduce you to the person in charge of the bank, and whether you can get a loan or not depends on your own ability and eloquence.

"Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar once said that at all times, Australasia and Russia are in-laws, and we have good relations, and that is why I came to you.

If Your Majesty is willing to take out a loan, we can use the right to exploit the oil field as collateral for five or ten years. The Tsar continued to persuade.

Arthur remained unmoved, it was useless to play the emotional card between national interests, and the Russian oil field exploitation rights were completely intractable to Arthur.

Just kidding, aren't the oil fields of the Persian Gulf more fragrant than those of Russia? You must know that Russia's oil fields need to be exploited and related oil pipelines need to be built in order to be transported overseas at a lower cost.

Otherwise, the cost of transportation and refining alone will far exceed the import of oil from other countries, so why do you need Russia's oil exploitation rights?

Moreover, it is difficult to say who will dominate Russia in the future, and if Soviet Russia achieves a final victory, will it still recognize the right to exploit oil in Australasia at that time? Not necessarily, I'm afraid

After seeing that Arthur could not be moved by all kinds of words, the Russian ambassador got to the point and said: "Your Majesty, His Majesty the Tsar is willing to exchange a batch of gold for a large loan in Australasia. If Your Majesty wishes, we may discuss the amount of this amount of gold. ”

Speaking of which, Arthur nodded.

In this way, it is very clear that the ultimate goal of the Russians should be to exchange gold for loans, and the various emotional cards and other requests in front of them are just temptations, after all, it is definitely better to exchange the lowest price for loans, and no one is willing to sell the gold in their hands directly.

You must know that the current monetary system of most countries still uses the gold standard, and the value of gold is still very high.

Basically, the amount of gold a country has also determines how much currency it can print.

Although there is no limit to the printing of money, the amount of money printed with an unbalanced ratio to gold can easily lead to the collapse of the paper money system, which is generally not done by other countries.

After all, gold can still be accumulated from other sources, but if the credit of paper money completely collapses, it will not be easy to recover it.

Gold is a country's hard currency at all times. A certain big country also has a proverb about gold in prosperous times and antiques, which is enough to prove the preciousness of gold in times of chaos.

Although Nicholas II had traded gold with Australasia many times, it only added up to a few hundred tons, which is still far from the amount of gold rumored to be in the Tsar's treasure. Arthur is still looking forward to whether the so-called Tsar's treasure is real.

That's it today, I'm a little dizzy after drinking, and I'll be ten thousand tomorrow! Ask for a monthly pass, ask for support!

(End of chapter)